Local agencies in the NW?

[Burphel]

So, I'm on my second assignment with CCTC and so far, I've just taken the contracts as offerred without shopping around. Ok, I've probably been leaving money on the table, but I've felt good with my recruiter and there's something to be said for already having paperwork on file.

But now that I've been on the road a bit, I'm looking to try shopping around. In particular, I'd like to find a smaller agency that mainly works out of the NW (WA/OR/ID). I live in eastern WA, so it's what I'm familiar with anyway, and I'm under the impression from other travellers that it's generally above average when it comes to workload and pay anyhow. Unfortunately, Google isn't very helpful as every national agency has the name of every state in their webpages. The only one I've found so far that seems even remotely regional is Meridian Medical Staffing out of Colorado. I haven't heard of them before, but they're "partnered" with MSN, which I've heard nothing good about.

Anybody have an agency and/or recruiter that they can recommend?

[NedRN]

If you cannot filter Google searches at the local level (there is a way, search for advanced Google searching on Google), try the same search on Google Maps on major cities. I used a local agency that offered travel contracts called The Surgical Staff for a Seattle assignment. HRN is a west coast agency having their main office in Seattle. If you have a specific hospital you want to work at, you can try calling their staffing office for agencies they use. I would ask for the agencies they prefer, but you can also ask for local agencies. If they are in an urban area, they will likely use a local agency for per diem staff and those agencies can often do a travel contract.

[NedRN]

Meridian is an independent agency. MSN (now owned by Cross Country) was the vendor manager for St Joseph Health hospitals in Napa, Santa Rosa, and Eureka (with a few smaller hospitals such as Apple Valley and Redwood). CC has lost that contract at the end of this year with American Mobile taking over. As a by the way, AM is also the VM for Kaiser hospitals. Agencies have contracts with VM rather than directly with the hospital.

Vendor managers now have around half (or more) of all open job orders and most agencies use them, although they may not advertise that fact. There are advantages and disadvantages to VM at the traveler level. One advantage is all agencies will have exactly the same bill rate (varying only for crisis staffing orders from the VM) so when you get two different quotes for the same assignment from an agency, you know which one has the lower gross profit margin (passing more money through to the traveler) and will be higher paying on all assignments generally.

The disadvantage is that the agency has lost that direct relationship with the hospital. That is like talking to your recruiter only through a third party for the agency (and indirectly you). Another general disadvantage to you is a higher level of due diligence by the VM (interpretation: more paperwork required). That disadvantage is actually an advantage to the hospital, as is VM in general. The hospital now only has one contract to deal with instead of twenty or so, (vendor managers may actually have 50 or more agencies onboarded), and only pays one bill.